1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the automation of electronic communication systems; and in particular, relates to an integrated system for electronic mail, facsimile transmission, terminal emulation and file synchronization among distributed computers.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
In addition to the telephone, electronic mail and facsimile transmission ("fax") have become indispensable communication tools in the information age. File transfers between computers are also frequently invoked communication functions. File transfers traditionally occur when information is shared among different computer users. More recently, as more users have multiple computers which are used, for example, at the work place, at home and during business travel, file transfers also occur when the same user maintains the same file in multiple machines. Further, portable computers have now made it possible for a computer user to send and receive electronic mail, a file or a fax at any time and anywhere. The frequency at which electronic mail, fax and file transfers occur has render manual management of each of these communication functions increasingly burdensome. Thus, an integrated system capable of both performing these communication tasks with minimal user intervention, and maintaining the necessary information for accomplishing each function is highly desired.
In the prior art, systems for generating and receiving electronic mail have at least two major weaknesses. First, these systems are incomplete. For example, facsimile transmission and electronic mail are not seen as satisfying the same communication need, but rather as two distinctly different applications. Consequently, the products available today typically address only one or two aspects of communications. For example, the prior art provides a program for sending and receiving facsimile transmission, and a program for providing both facsimile transmission and terminal emulation. No product to date provides, under a single user interface, and in a uniform manner, the ability to send and receive fax, file transfer, terminal emulation, and electronic mail.
The second weakness of prior art communication programs results from the designers' of such programs seeing communication as a function distinct from other functions carried out in the computer, and not as a supporting function to such other functions of the computer. For example, to send an electronic mail message today, the electronic mail application program would provide its own text processor for composing the message. This electronic mail application program may not necessarily be compatible with the other application programs the computer user uses, duplicates the functions performed by these other application programs, and demands both valuable memory space and screen "real estate."
Suitable management of communication data is also lacking in prior art communications products. For example, programs in the prior art do not automatically provide a different dialing sequence when a normally local call becomes a long distance call, or requires an access prefix to a private telephone exchange (PBX), such as when the computer user is away from his usual location during business travel or at a different office. In these situations, the user of the prior art program is required to manually edit the configuration, or even individual telephone numbers, stored in the data base of these programs.
Further, electronic address books of the prior art, such as those found in organizer programs, are generally suited only for maintaining databases designed for memorializing personal and business contacts. These programs, however, are not designed for creating an electronic communication environment. Specifically, electronic address books suffer at least two major weaknesses.
First, the type of information typically stored in such programs are insufficient for use in electronic communications. In general, these address book programs are not designed to handle electronic mail addresses, and usually provide little support for maintaining multiple fax and voice phone numbers. For example, none of these programs allows the user to specify a given recipient's preferred mode or method of receiving communication, e.g. facsimiles or electronic mail, so that an automatic procedure which sends a message to the recipient using the preferred mode or method of communication cannot be designed using databases of such programs.
Second, address book programs are structured to store information about individuals. Such programs do not provide support in maintaining information about other entities which may also be sources or destinations of communication. These entities, which include groups of people, bulletin board services, mainframe computers and desktop personal computers, all have attributes of communication different from such attributes of an individual. Thus, an environment for supporting electronic communication involving these entities cannot be created within the framework of these programs. Other deficiencies of prior art address book programs also include the absence of a flexible way to specify a communication medium, or to support telephone calling card usage, often necessary when the computer user is a traveller.
As to file transfers, prior art remote file transfer utilities are deficient in several areas. Firstly, these programs lack "user-friendliness." Typical prior art file transfer utilities are difficult to use. Often, to be able to properly set up these programs, the user is required to have detailed knowledge of data communications, such as the configuration of a modem. Further, these prior art file transfer programs do not support file management operations (e.g. marking a file for deletion, or updating a file when a new version of the file becomes available) when the communicating computers are not connected. These programs examine and operate on remote files only when the local and remote computers are connected. Thus, in these programs, file management operations are often manually performed in an interactive mode when the communicating computers are connected. Consequently, as such functions are often accomplished over a long distance telephone connection, substantial expense can be incurred.
Another deficiency in prior art file transfer utilities is the lack of support for file synchronization. The prior art file transfer utilities rest upon the human user the responsibility of remembering files or directories that need to be kept synchronized among the computers in which versions of these files or directories reside. While some products provide some support for performing such synchronization manually, none of the prior art file transfer utilities supports persistent synchronization, i.e. automatic resynchronization of such files upon connection of the computers.
Finally, to add a new communication service, prior art software products generally require a complete update of many or all system components. Installing a new service would therefore require substantial cost and significant disruption of service due to the technical complexity of configuring and testing these software products.